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Mark Steyn: Desperate Dems no match for Arnie
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 12, 2003 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 10/12/2003 9:37:28 AM PDT by NovemberCharlie

You gotta admire the way the media stayed on the Demo-crats' sinking California ship right to the very end. On the CNN Web site, even after Gray Davis had conceded, they were sticking to the loser's talking-points:

''Schwarzenegger, who, like Hitler, is a native of Austria . . .''

CNN? Oh, that's that network with Larry King, who, like the Son of Sam, is a native of Brooklyn. Used to be owned by Ted Turner, who, like the Cincinnati Strangler, is a native of Cincinnati. Now part of Time Warner, founded by the Warner Brothers, the oldest of whom, Harry Warner, like many Auschwitz guards, was a native of Poland.

Anyway, the good news is that residents of the Golden Reich still have the right to recall their new fuhrer from his bunker in Sacramento, and he probably won't make Jews wear yellow stars and gays wear pink triangles because the fabric costs for Hollywood and San Francisco alone would double the deficit.

But even on the day after, the Dems wouldn't lay off the Nazi cracks. ''It was the triumph of the swill," said Paul Maslin, in an allusion to the late Leni Riefenstahl's Hitler-glorifying documentary ''Triumph of the Will.'' Arnold's not just a Nazi, he's Nazi garbage!

Maslin is Gray Davis' pollster. Maybe he should poll-test his jokes.

Incidentally, if there was any triumph of the swill in this election, it was surely Maslin's remarkable success in persuading so many media outlets to buy into the Gray Davis spin that their ''internal polls'' showed the race was ''tightening.'' Hence, hilarious headlines like the Washington Post's on Election Day: ''On Eve Of Vote, California Race Remains Fluid'' -- ''fluid'' in the sense that Cruz Bustamante's defeat might be merely humiliating instead of shattering?

Either Maslin was intentionally shoveling swill at the Los Angeles Times and his other chums or he's an incredibly bad pollster. Given that there were similar discrepancies between alleged Democratic ''internal polls'' and the real world in November 2002, either explanation could be valid. But the press bought the Democratic spin and in turn the Democrats bought the subsequent media spin. Both parties bolstered each other's delusions. As I wrote after last year's elections: ''Remind me never to complain about 'liberal media bias' again. Right now, liberal media bias is conspiring to assist the Democrats to sleepwalk over the cliff.''

But 10 minutes after the polls had closed, the Dems and the media were once again rocketing off to Planet Bananas. Before Election Day, the official line was that the recall was part of a pattern of hardline Republican subversion of the democratic process, going back through the Florida recount to the Clinton impeachment. In an about-turn so fast poor old DNC honcho Terry McAuliffe must have gotten whiplash, the new line was that the recall reflected a voter anger against incumbents that would spell disaster for Bush next year. And even as I lay on the floor howling with laughter, up there on CNN Judy Woodruff & Co. were taking it seriously. That would be the Judy Woodruff who, like 1970s serial killer Lendell Hunter, is a native of Augusta, Ga.

Just in case any Democrats have come back down to Planet Earth, here's what happened on Tuesday: The two Republican candidates -- Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock -- pulled 62 percent of the vote between them; the Democrat, Cruz Bustamante, got 31.7 percent. The remaining 6 percent was divided among the other 132 candidates. Just to recap: Republicans 62 percent, Democrats 31.7 percent -- in the most liberal state in the nation. As long as all those angry voters keep expressing their anger by voting for Republicans over Democrats by two to one, I think I can live with it.

At Thursday's Democratic Presidential debate, Jeff Greenfield asked the candidates why it was that only 34 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats -- the lowest number since before the New Deal. ''You're looking at the glass as half-empty, I look at it as half-full,'' said former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, demonstrating the command of basic math that has made the federal budget what it is. The Democratic glass isn't half-empty, it's two-thirds empty.

Let us take the Davis/Bustamante campaigns at face value: The Republicans said it was all about business and taxes and growth; the Dems said it was about whether Arnie was a Nazi sex fiend. OK, let's take that as seriously as Katie Couric and the rest of the gang did. Every day I get a gazillion e-mails screaming ''BUSH IS A NAZI!!!!'' Also Cheney, Rumsfeld, even yours truly: We're all Nazis. In California, an accident of birth gave the Democrats the opportunity to run with the Nazi hysteria literally. It flopped spectacularly.

As in 2002, they tried to motivate their base by linking the recall to the Florida recount. It flopped, again.

As in 2002, they flew in Bill Clinton to whip up the crowd, at least until the groping stories started. He flopped, again -- as he did two years ago when Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Maryland were holding their own until the Big He turned up to rally the crowd.

As always, they did the big ethnic pander, damning Republican views on illegal immigration as ''racist.'' Amazingly, even this flopped. The Hispanic vote declined to fall in line behind one of their own, and over 30 percent went for Arnie.

Nazi! Racist! Don't forget Florida! Here's Bill Clinton! It's not much of a message, is it? And, if the party's short of ideas, it's even shorter of stars. The fact that in the most populous state in the nation the two leading Democrats are Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante is as telling as anything. The gubernatorial pool is where you look for presidential talent, and right now their only star governor is Jennifer Granholm, who can't run for president because she was born in British Columbia. That's why in Thursday's debate half the presidential candidates are sad-sack senators dulled by decades of deal-making and Beltwayspeak and the other half are goofs and oddballs. The shortage of talent is so severe they've had to parachute in Wesley Clark, a man who was playing Republican fund-raisers and waving pompons for Bush and Cheney the day before yesterday. Gen. Clark's star power seemed to have dimmed to a 30-watt bulb by Thursday. The Clark ''bandwagon'' is like those Gray Davis ''tightening'' numbers. Do you really think he'll make it through to New Hampshire?

Oh, well. If I were a Dem, I'd go with Howard Dean. Even if he loses, he'll de-Clintonize the party along the way, which ought to be the most important priority. Otherwise, it's all down to Sen. Rodham Clinton in 2008 -- or, as Paul Maslin would put it, the triumph of the Hill.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: democrats; desperatedems; marksteyn; marksteynlist; steyn
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The Latest from Steyn
1 posted on 10/12/2003 9:37:28 AM PDT by NovemberCharlie
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To: Pokey78; *Mark Steyn list
A ping to the Steyn list, and to your list.
2 posted on 10/12/2003 9:39:10 AM PDT by NovemberCharlie
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3 posted on 10/12/2003 9:39:13 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Admin Moderator
Admin Mod, can you do something about the title? It should have read, "Mark Steyn: Desperate Dems no match for Arnie."

Thanks.

4 posted on 10/12/2003 9:40:58 AM PDT by NovemberCharlie
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To: NovemberCharlie
"If I were a Dem, I'd go with Howard Dean. Even if he loses, he'll de-Clintonize the party along the way, which ought to be the most important priority."

AGREED! Go Howard Go, at least let's have an honest leftist/socialist party and not the Mao/Stalin/Fidelisto cult of personality these demogoges have wrought.

(No, the only real question is, how many words did I misspell this time?!)
5 posted on 10/12/2003 9:46:33 AM PDT by jocon307 (GO RUSH GO)
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To: NovemberCharlie
He's in rare form here. Bump.
6 posted on 10/12/2003 9:46:52 AM PDT by tet68 (multiculturalism is an ideological academic fantasy maintained in obvious bad faith. M. Thompson)
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To: NovemberCharlie
This is priceless:

CNN? Oh, that's that network with Larry King, who, like the Son of Sam, is a native of Brooklyn. Used to be owned by Ted Turner, who, like the Cincinnati Strangler, is a native of Cincinnati. Now part of Time Warner, founded by the Warner Brothers, the oldest of whom, Harry Warner, like many Auschwitz guards, was a native of Poland.

7 posted on 10/12/2003 9:49:17 AM PDT by EggsAckley (..........................all my pings are belong to ......YOU.....................)
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To: NovemberCharlie
Mark Steyn kicks ass.
8 posted on 10/12/2003 9:50:25 AM PDT by ServesURight (FReecerely Yours,)
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To: NovemberCharlie
"Every debate will degrade untill the looser concedes defeat by bringing up hitler" -- Anonymous
9 posted on 10/12/2003 9:53:14 AM PDT by ChadGore (Kakkate Koi!)
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To: NovemberCharlie
As in 2002, they flew in Bill Clinton to whip up the crowd, at least until the groping stories started. He flopped, again -- as he did two years ago when Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Maryland were holding their own until the Big He turned up to rally the crowd.


10 posted on 10/12/2003 9:54:31 AM PDT by ChadGore (Kakkate Koi!)
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To: tet68; ohioWfan; Wphile; cyn; muggs; Freedom'sWorthIt; Seeking the truth; afraidfortherepublic; ...
This article had me howling! Terrific writing....as biting as any Ann Coulter column! Just wow!

Don't miss this one folks! This a a butt smackin good rollic!

11 posted on 10/12/2003 9:59:22 AM PDT by Republic
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To: ChadGore
I suspect that the reason the "Nazi" label has no meaning anymore is because the schools don't do an adequate job of teaching the rise of Nazism and its final defeat in WWII. It is more important for the schools to teach alternate lifestyles and how to put a condom on a cucumber, than teach how a terrible man was able to cause the deaths of millions. So when one political hack calls someone else a Nazi, many citizens are now likely to just shrug their shoulders.
12 posted on 10/12/2003 10:06:48 AM PDT by Enterprise
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To: NovemberCharlie
Nazi! Racist! Don't forget Florida! Here's Bill Clinton!

A perfect summation of the entire Democrat platform.

13 posted on 10/12/2003 10:07:46 AM PDT by bootyist-monk (It's Enrico Palatso!)
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To: NovemberCharlie
The propaganda is only going to get worse, much much worse.

Thank goodness that some are limbering their guns and getting the rtange.
14 posted on 10/12/2003 10:10:58 AM PDT by bert (Don't Panic!)
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To: ChadGore
I think we want to get away from blaming all the Democrat's election nightmares on Clinton support. The fact is, much as I despise the Clintons, the Democrats aren't dying because of them, they're dying because they haven't had a workable new idea since 1973 or so.

Blaming Democrat failures on the Clintons will just play right into their spin when they finally get rid of Bill&Hill, which is that they were always right but "unfairly" politically encumbered by those two.

Democrats don't lose because of the Clintons. Democrats lose because they are Democrats.

Qwinn
15 posted on 10/12/2003 10:13:50 AM PDT by Qwinn
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To: Enterprise
"I suspect that the reason the "Nazi" label has no meaning anymore is because the schools don't do an adequate job of teaching the rise of Nazism and its final defeat in WWII."

Not in NY. Our schools teach the Nazi Holocaust, but little is devoted to the Communist's mass murders. I guess its not the same, but when millions of innocent people are killed, regardless of how or why, its still a holocaust in my book. Its not like the Nazis had a monopoly on mass murder.
16 posted on 10/12/2003 10:24:35 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft (Has anyone seen our Senator Hillary? NY wants to know; "Where is she today?")
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To: NovemberCharlie
Brilliant, as are all of Steyn's columns.

That would be the Judy Woodruff who, like 1970s serial killer Lendell Hunter, is a native of Augusta, Ga.

Wasn't there a coca cola executive or family member at one point named Woodruff? I wonder if there is any relation.

17 posted on 10/12/2003 10:24:59 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: NovemberCharlie
*BUMP*!

I had to retch last night when I turned on my television and saw local reporters saying a new CNN/Newsweak Poll had found support for President Bush was down. They reported his support had fallen to just 44%.

I did not know whether to laugh or scream. Saw Bush's figures yesterday myself and his support was back up to 55%.

What does a sane person do when their local televison stations are playing games with misleading polls. The only thing I can do is turn off my televion.

That must be why Portland, Oregon's network channels are running informercial b.s. and herbal viagra crapola nearly 14 hours a day now. From 12 midnight to 7 am they have hucksters selling real estate courses, memory courses, vitamins, herbal viagra, skin cream, etc etc.

Commercial television is dead in America. One major reason why is their constant lies, lies, lies and spin, spin, spin for the Democratic Party. They are digging themselves a huge, deep hole as their own grave.

18 posted on 10/12/2003 10:27:41 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Why Davis Orders Shredders - - To Destroy Evidence of Fund Raising Felonies!)
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To: NovemberCharlie
The absolute truth is that for the past several years, the Democrats have offered absolutely no ideas, only whinning and criticism.
19 posted on 10/12/2003 10:28:15 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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To: Qwinn
It looks like we agree on the reason the democrats are failing. Great minds and all that.
20 posted on 10/12/2003 10:29:56 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace ((the original))
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